Blazers’ Win Over Timberwolves a Historic Upset

The Portland Trail Blazers’ 107-105 upset win over the Minnesota Timberwolves this afternoon was incredible, but did you know it was historic?

Tipico Sportsbook set Minnesota as a 19.5 point favorite heading into the game, making the loss the largest defeat against the spread (ATS) in the NBA since 1995, according to media personality Rob Perez.

The 19.5-point favorite Minnesota Timberwolves have just suffered the worst recorded NBA ATS defeat since 1995, a catastrophic loss which has dropped them 2 losses behind 8 seed in West with 3 games to play. A scenario which could doom them to the sudden death play-in bracket.

Perez expands further that there’s no game officially in the record books that registers as a bigger ATS defeat.

[by the way], the only reason why it’s 1995 is because that’s as far back as reliable ATS data is made available. who knows truly how long it’s been or if there was ever a bigger upset.

Minnesota came into this game with its three best players — Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert — healthy and intentions to move up in the Play-In race. Instead, a Blazers unit headlined by a rookie, albeit a good one in Shaedon Sharpe, and three emergency players the team picked up this week outlasted the Timberwolves in their own building.

It was a gritty effort from the visiting team, a dispiriting effort from the home team and an upset of historic proportions. Maybe that’s why the Timberwolves crowd reacted this way when the final buzzer sounded:

Oof.

If you missed how the shorthanded Blazers got the job done, check out Dave Deckard’s extended analysis of the win.